


Earth Traditions

by Gaffsie



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Alcohol, F/M, Friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-08-21
Updated: 2011-08-21
Packaged: 2017-10-23 12:38:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,140
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/250397
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gaffsie/pseuds/Gaffsie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kanaan has moved out, and John comes bearing gifts. John/Teyla, past Teyla/Kanaan.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Earth Traditions

**Author's Note:**

  * For [shetiger](https://archiveofourown.org/users/shetiger/gifts).



“Hey,” John said. She had not expected anyone to show up at her door so quickly. News, it would seem, travelled faster on Atlantis than she'd suspected. She could have told him that she was tired, or busy, or mediating, or any number of things, but she didn't. She just stepped aside to let him into her quarters.

The door closed behind him with a soft hiss, and John coughed awkwardly. Teyla knew that his observant gaze had already noticed the empty spots where Kanaan's things used to be. She felt very tired all of a sudden, and she wished that John would just mumble out whatever heartfelt and supportive platitude that was trapped behind his teeth and leave.

“What can I do for you?” she asked, sounding overly bright and cheerful to her own ears. Her Trader voice.

John scratched his neck. “Actually,” he said, “I was thinking I could do something for you.”

He lifted his other hand. There was a bottle of Halling's Rhuus wine in it.

Teyla could feel her eyebrows lifting.

John gave her one of his charming lop-sided smiles. “Earth tradition,” he explained. “When your relationship falls to pieces, your friends are supposed to help you drink your sorrows away.”

Teyla couldn't help but smile. She'd wanted him gone just a moment ago, but if she was being honest with herself she didn't really want to be alone right now, not with Torren visiting his father, and her quarters silent and still like they hadn't been in years. John was good company, and that was something she needed right now.

“Your earth movies gave me the impression that my friends would bring me ice-cream to help me _eat_ my sorrows away,” she teased him.

John grimaced. “ _Girl_ friends, maybe. Guy friends bring booze.” He waved the bottle for emphasis. “But if you'd rather have ice-cream, I could go to the mess and get some...”

“No,” Teyla said, surprising herself. “I think I'd rather have the alcohol.”

“Excellent. Now where's your glasses?”

Teyla let out a startled laugh. “In the sink, under the dirty plates. I must confess that my mind has been elsewhere today.”

“No problem.” He pulled out the cork and after gulping down a big swallow of wine, he reached out the bottle to Teyla. “You're not afraid of my germs, are you?”

Teyla wasn't. She took the bottle from him, held it to her lips, and took a drink. It tasted sweet on her tongue, but it burned pleasantly going down. One of Halling's better batches, then. She could feel a buzz already. _Definitely_ one of Halling's better batches.

She walked over to the sofa.“Come, sit with me,” she said. John followed and made himself comfortable, sprawling over his side of the couch while Teyla chose to sit cross-legged on her side.

Teyla took another swig from the bottle and silently passed it over to John, and for a while they just drank in quiet companionship. It was... pleasant. Where Kanaan would have made her talk, Rodney would have talked her ear off and Ronon sing one bawdy fighting song after another before passing out on her shoulder, with John she knew she could just _be_ for a while.

They'd emptied half the bottle before either of them spoke again.

It was John who first broke the silence. “I'm sorry about Kanaan.” He looked down at the bottle he was holding as he spoke, tilting it this way and that to make the brown Thelisan glass catch the light. His voice was kind, but there was pity in it, and it made Teyla angry. John made far too many assumptions.

“I am not heartbroken.” She said sharply, twisting her body so she could look him in the eye.

“You're not?” John blurted out. It was almost comical how shocked he looked. “But, I thought-”

“You never asked.” Teyla interrupted him. “It hurts, like all failures do, but I will continue as I've always have.”

John was frowning in confusion now, eyebrows drawn together. “I thought you two loved each other,” he finally said.

Teyla sighed. “I do love him, very much. But as a friend, John.”

“Oh,” John said. He bit his lip. “I always thought... You seemed so close.”

“We have a child together,” Teyla said. “Without Torren, all we have is our shared history. Even with Torren, it was not enough. We could not give each other what we needed.”

She didn't know why she was telling John all this, not when she'd spent the last two years carefully avoiding bringing Kanaan up in his presence. Maybe it was the alcohol – Teyla was more accustomed to the Rhuus wine than John was, but it was very potent – or maybe it was just the knowledge that she _could_ talk about this with John now. He had always been awkward in Kanaan's presence, but truth be told, she'd found that she too found it easier to keep John and Kanaan as far apart as possible, both literally and figuratively.

“I know how that goes,” John said. Teyla looked at him, surprised. Even when there were just the two of them, John rarely divulged his own secrets.

He smirked at her, as if mocking himself. “With Nancy... It's different, because we were in love, but in the end...” He looked away, busying himself with putting the bottle away.

Teyla reached over and covered his hand with hers. John squeezed it, gratefully, but he did not meet her eyes.

“We couldn't give each other what we needed. We both wanted to, but...”

“It was not to be,” Teyla finished his sentence for him.

“Yeah.”

He was silent for a while, then, “I get it, you know. I've been there.”

“I know you do,” Teyla said.

“I guess we both suck at this, huh?” he said.

“Yes,” Teyla agreed. Suddenly she was fiercely happy that John had come to her tonight. She pulled him into a hug, thinking that she could always blame the wine if it made him uncomfortable, but he didn't complain or fidget. He simply wrapped his arms around her like it was what he'd always wanted.

“We're quite a pair, aren't we?” he whispered into her hair, and she laughed, and let him pull her down on top of him.

John was gazing up on her with a soft look on his face, and Teyla had to kiss him then. He responded eagerly, lifting his head for a better angle, letting his hands roam over her back, and for a while they just luxuriated in each others presence.

When they broke apart, Teyla resting her head on John's shoulder, John tightening his arms around her, John said, plaintively, “Why does this happen every time we get drunk together?”

Teyla grinned. “At least this time, Ronon wasn't watching.”

THE END  



End file.
